Libertarianism may be a serious economic philosophy but it's a poor political philosophy. It completely ignores issues like path dependency, importance of culture and socialization, etc.
Don't you find it odd that societies that exemplify the sort of globally optimal yet individually rational choices such as in Japan or Nordic countries have laws and norms more often than not in direct contradiction to Western Libertarian thinking? Libertarianism can only work if people have already strongly internalized a communitarian ethos. Without that ethos (internalized directly by the people or indirectly through its institutions) civilization cannot exist; basic game theory proves that. Pervasive non-kin selflessness is the defining characteristic that uniquely separates humans from every other species in existence.[1]
The paradox is that we can get rid of coercive economic policies only once the Koch Brothers and Paul Ryans are replaced by hippies, or at least people substantially less motivated by bald self-interest.
[1] We still don't understand how it arose, and so IMO all modern economic theories (libertarian or otherwise) are fundamentally handicapped unless and until we can throughly answer that question.
Don't you find it odd that societies that exemplify the sort of globally optimal yet individually rational choices such as in Japan or Nordic countries have laws and norms more often than not in direct contradiction to Western Libertarian thinking? Libertarianism can only work if people have already strongly internalized a communitarian ethos. Without that ethos (internalized directly by the people or indirectly through its institutions) civilization cannot exist; basic game theory proves that. Pervasive non-kin selflessness is the defining characteristic that uniquely separates humans from every other species in existence.[1]
The paradox is that we can get rid of coercive economic policies only once the Koch Brothers and Paul Ryans are replaced by hippies, or at least people substantially less motivated by bald self-interest.
[1] We still don't understand how it arose, and so IMO all modern economic theories (libertarian or otherwise) are fundamentally handicapped unless and until we can throughly answer that question.